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Thursday, December 11, 2014

The big news of the day at the Winter Meetings Wednesday was the Miami Marlins unloading their top pitching prospect in lefty Andrew Heaney and 3 other prospects to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 2B Dee Gordon and SP Dan Haren. The Dodgers than flipped Heaney to the Los Angeles Angels for 2B Howie Kendrick. The real prize in the deal is Heaney who many compare to Madison Bumgarner which is high praise. Still Gordon was a top five second baseman last season in fantasy baseball as he ran wild and even batted a shocking .289 considering how pronounced his hitting struggles once were. With the ink still not dry on the deal, let's take a closer look at the main names in the deal and how it impacts 2015 fantasy baseball.

Andrew Heaney: Again Heaney is the real prize in the deal as the 29th-ranked prospect in all of baseball is a hard-throwing lefty who has rare top notch control for such a young pitcher. While Heaney struggled in his cup of coffee debut in 2014, the ceiling if very high here as Heaney has the makeup to be a front-of-the-rotation guy. The Angels have a clear opening in the rotation as Hector Santiago is better suited for the bullpen and Heaney is already being penciled in as a regular member there. The sleeper status is sizable here and the ballpark checks out once again. Heaney is a guy who can pay off handsomely who could supply good ERA and WHIP numbers while also striking out an above-average amount of hitters. Get him on your sleeper list.

Dee Gordon: Speed was very in doubt when it comes to Dee Gordon who became an All-Star infielder in 2014 when he batted .289 and stole 64 bases in his first full MLB season. Having failed to hit even .235 the two seasons prior when the Dodgers gave him a chance to be a regular, Gordon broke through in 2014 by cutting down his K rate by a wide margin. Of course Gordon still didn't walk much but his speed alone made him a clear top five fantasy baseball shortstop. Gordon is likely to be right there when it comes to leading baseball in stolen bases but counting on him to hit .289 again is a very shaky proposition given how bad he was at the dish prior. Having top-notch speed like Gordon has allows him to beat the BABIP gods more than most but still he is really only an asset in runs and steals and nothing more. Still was pretty ordinary once again the second half of last season which should give one pause about not investing as much as last season's numbers suggest for you to do.

Dan Haren: The veteran Haren churned out a useful season in 2014 for the Dodgers in compiling a 4.02 ERA and 1.18 WHIP at the age of 33. The former 200-K ace is far from that level of pitcher as he has lost velocity due to all the innings that were piled onto his arm but Haren can still get outs with his good secondary stuff. The fact he remains in a prime pitcher's park makes it likely can Haren give you another SP 5 season at a very late round price. Just don't count on anything more than around 150 K's.